ITV

Tag: Siti Cable

  • Zee rejig: 2 companies to merge with ASC Enterprise

    Zee rejig: 2 companies to merge with ASC Enterprise

    NEW DELHI: Two companies related to the consumer service business of the Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group’s DTH platform are poised to be merged with ASC Enterprise Ltd, which holds a DTH licence.

    The companies to be merged with ASC Enterprise are Cornersoft Entertainment Co Pvt Ltd and New Era Entertainment Pvt Ltd.

    This is part of the restructuring announced by Zee Telefilms late March to de-merge its various businesses into separate companies to unlock shareholders’ value and conform to varying regulatory needs.

    The direct consumer business is marked by division of activities between the DTH license holder ASC Enterprises Limited and subsidiaries of Siti Cable, the cable arm of Zee Telefilms. This led to lack of clarity in structure, inefficiencies in tax and diffused strategic focus, the Zee management felt.

    The merger proposal, which got the in-principle okay of the Zee board, is likely to be formalised at a board meet of the company on 27 April. ASC Enterprise’s DTH service is marketed under the brand name Dish TV.

    Started in 2004, Cornersoft Entertainment created the 7575 interactive platform for Zee family of channels and other Essel group companies. The interaction happens on the Essel short code 7575, which during the final countdown to Sa Re Ga Ma 2005 Challenge show on Zee TV received almost 5 million SMSs per day. Such massive interaction took it ahead of the popular Times group-owned 8888 platform.

    The 7575 platform has tied up with all the GSM and CDMA phone operators with a powerful national penetration of 98.5 per cent.

    The mission of Cornersoft Entertainment is to integrate, connect and extend high quality and engaging content, applications and services to customers. It’s positioning will help Dish TV market a range of value added services that it plans to offer to its subscribers over a period of time.

    The 7575 service is also a pioneer in integrating TV-SMS, a technology solution that provides live interaction capabilities to play and interact while watching a particular show. Over a period of time, other value added services like ring tones download have also been introduced.

    On the other hand, New Era Entertainment markets the Dish TV services in the country. Launched in October 2003, Dish TV has close to one million subscribers and is presently said to be adding approximately 3000 subscribers every day as awareness about such a service increases in India.

    The Zee Telefilms stock on the Bombay Stock Exchange closed Wednesday at Rs 241.5, down by Rs 2.35, after opening at Rs 243.85. At the National Stock Exchange, the scrip closed at Rs 241.7, down by Rs 2.30 from the last day’s close of Rs 244.

  • Zee Telefilms to be named Zee Entertainment Enterprises; ASC Enterprises becomes Dish TV

    Zee Telefilms to be named Zee Entertainment Enterprises; ASC Enterprises becomes Dish TV

    MUMBAI: One part of the process set in motion late last month by the Subhash Chandra promoted Zee Telefilms board to split its broadcasting business into three entities — news operations, broadcast & content creation, and Siti Cable — has been completed with the nomenclature of the new entities finalised.

    Zee Telefilms will henceforth be named as Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel). Included under its ambit are flagship Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Sports and Zee Smile.

    On the other hand, ASC Enterprises Ltd, under which comes the group’s direct-to-home (DTH) businesses, will now be renamed as Dish TV Ltd. ASC Enterprise’s DTH service is marketed under the brand name Dish TV.

    Last month, the company’s board had approved of splitting of its broadcasting business into three entities — news operations, broadcast and content creation, and Siti Cable.

    There is no change of name for the news operations company which remains Zee News Ltd. Under Zee News comes not just the news channels but the regional channels as well.

    The reason for including the regional channels into Zee News Ltd is because of the heavy news component that forms an intrinsic part of all these channels. It was in order to comply with the news uplinking guidelines that effective October 2005, newsgathering activities of ZTL were transferred to Zee News Limited.

    The news channels include Zee News, Zee Biz and the recently launched Bangla news channel Chobbees Ghanta. The regional channels are Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Punjabi, Zee Gujarati, with the newest addition being Zee Telugu. Expected to launch next month is the sixth regional channel in the stable Zee Kannada.

    As regards the restructuring on the cable side, it has already been announced that the cable business of Siti Cable, a 100 per cent subsidiary of ZTL (now Zeel), and the cable related business of ZTL would be de-merged into Wire and Wireless (India) Limited (WWIL), a new company incorporated for the purpose.

  • IBF board to discuss CAS on 5 April

    IBF board to discuss CAS on 5 April

    NEW DELHI: Even as Siti Cable today made a presentation on conditional access system to stakeholders during a government-sponsored meeting, the broadcasters said the issue of rollout would be discussed at a board meeting before they finalise their stand.

    The Siti Cable presentation basically dwelt on various aspects of CAS, but hinged on the fact that between 180-200 days would be needed as preparation time for final rollout of addressability in Indian cable homes in the metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

    Siti Cable is also in favour of standardization of all contractual agreements that are entered between a broadcaster and MSO; an MSO and a cable operator and a local operator and a consumer.

    Though the six-hour long meeting took up various viewpoints and modalities that could be followed before the government notifies a date for rollout of CAS, representatives from most major pay broadcasters did not attend today’s meeting.

    Those who could be said to be representing the broadcasting community included a senior official from the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), an apex body of all broadcasters active in India, and Zee Telefilms’ Jawahar Goel.

    Broadcasters haven’t yet given a formal submission to the government on CAS, which is expected to come through on 7 April when the government will hold another round of meeting with industry stakeholders.

    Meanwhile, Indiantelevision.com learns that the board of IBF will discuss addressability in a meeting on Wednesday (5 April).

    Some of the issues relating to CAS implementation, which have been informally raised by broadcasters with the government, include piracy, quality of service and parameters to decide standardized agreements amongst industry stakeholders.

    It is also learnt that the broadcasters are averse to supplying maximum retail price for a TV channel for the end consumer.

    The pay broadcasters, yet to articulate their final stand on this issue, feel a mechanism could be evolved whereby wholesale price of individual channels and bouquets could be supplied to MSOs who then could decide what a channel should cost to the consumer after including their margins for providing a service.

    After today’s meeting, an independent cable operator of Delhi, Dr. AK Rastogi, said, “We have been discussing CAS for few days now. But to me, it seems, final implementation, as directed by the Delhi High Court, will take more time than what had been envisaged.”

  • CAS: Gloves off as IBF, cable frat hurl charges

    CAS: Gloves off as IBF, cable frat hurl charges

    NEW DELHI: The game of ping-pong being played in the name of Conditional Access System (CAS) took another turn today with the broadcasters and cable fraternity hitting out against each other as the government reserved its verdict on the issue of rollout of addressability.

    The Indian Broadcasting Foundation today made it clear in a submission to the information and broadcasting ministry that all addressable systems should be mandated like CAS and providing a la carte pricing of channels would not be in the interest of consumers. Indiantelevision.com had reported on Wednesday that this was the stand the IBF would be taking on the CAS imbroglio.

    While the government is yet to firm up its stand from the wide-ranging industry feedback, which, if taken into account, would push CAS rollout to fourth quarter of 2006, the Hinduja-owned IndusInd Media Communication Ltd has said that the government should honour the court verdict in the light of CAS being operational in Chennai since 2003 without any objections being raised by stakeholders.

    The Delhi High Court on 10 March had directed the government to implement CAS in Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi within one month’s time, which is about to get over technically this month. But it needs to be seen when the government received a certified copy of the court order.

    Interestingly, at a meeting that the government had with industry stakeholders today on CAS, the issue of registering of CAS operators with the government and the whole process of doing it, is likely to add to the delay.

    A new sequencing of CAS rollout submitted by Siti Cable at the meeting, according to government sources, states the date of implementation should 14 November 2006 with the time in between used for getting ready for a CAS-enabled regime.

    The IBF’s submission has not only created more confusion, but has enraged a certain section of the cable industry too.

    At one place in its letter to the I&B ministry, the IBF has said that the government should stop the cable industry from charging huge amount of carriage fees, which raised the hackles of cable ops present during today’s meeting.

    In a separate submission to the ministry, the Delhi-based National Cable & Telecommunications Association has, in turn, requested the government to direct the pay broadcasters not to play tough.

    “If the pay channels demand more time for the implementation of conditional access system in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, then it is imperative that they must be directed to immediately stop collecting monthly subscription from the cable service providers till CAS comes into force,” NCTA has said.

    Though the NCTA letter exhorts the government to “exercise its powers” and direct the pay channels to declare rates of their individual channels and fix an upper limit for pricing of individual; channels and bouquets, the I&B ministry representatives at the meeting today did not utter any word on these issues.

  • Zee to buy out broadband services provider Pacenet

    Zee to buy out broadband services provider Pacenet

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) is buying out broadband services provider Broadband Pacenet, which is promoted by Jagjit Singh Kohli, Yogesh Shah and Yogesh Radhakrishnan.

    Kohli, who is the CEO of Siti cable, is an immediate beneficiary of the proposed demerger of India’s largest multi systems operator (in terms of size) and the cable related business of Zee Telefilms Ltd. He is being given a 2 per cent stake in the new company, Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd, which he will be heading.

    A detailed business plan is being prepared for Wire and Wireless which will venture into triple play services as well, Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra said, while addressing analysts here today.

    Pacenet will be merged with Wire and Wireless and Kohli’s partners will also be given shares in the new entity. “We have agreed to buy out Pacenet. The valuation is under progress. The existing shareholders of Pacenet will be given shares in Wire and Wireless,” Chandra said.

    Broadband Pacenet offers broadband services using the cable network infrastructure of its franchisees and claims to be servicing over 25,000 home subscribers apart from many corporates.

  • Zee rejig to improve bottomline: Chandra

    Zee rejig to improve bottomline: Chandra

    NEW DELHI: Subhash Chandra, chairman of the approximately Rs. 13 billion Zee Telefilms, feels that after the restructuring announced Wednesday, the company’s bottomline would be “healthier”, though top line growth might be cropped as loss making businesses have been hived off into separate companies.

    Talking to CNBC TV18, Chandra also said that the news operations and the regional channels, which were hived off into Zee News Ltd, will be profitable with a turnover of Rs 3 billion.

    The cable TV distribution business of Siti Cable (again hived off into WWIL) will be a no-profit-no-loss venture that generates revenues of Rs 1 billion at the moment.

    “They (Zee News and cable business company WWIL), will be profitable. The quarter results of these entities will come out on 28 April, along with the consolidated results.

    “WWIL may not be profitable, but there will not be any losses. I think the revenue line for WWIL would be about Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) at the moment,” Chandra explained.

    Yesterday, Zee Telefilms, India’s largest vertically integrated media company, announced splitting of its broadcasting business into three entities — news operations and regional language operations (Zee News Ltd), broadcast and content creation, and Siti Cable, which will also include the initiatives on the CAS front (Wire and Wireless India Limited or WWIL).

    The direct consumer related business of ZTL and Dish TV, the country’s first private sector DTH service, have also been separated and subsumed into ASC Enterprise Ltd, which is the DTH licence holder.

    According to Chandra, foreign investors have evinced interest in the cable and DTH business of the group.

    “We are being approached a lot for cable and Dish TV (country’s first private direct-to-home service) businesses. However, not as many for the entertainment or the news content business. But we are open for those also,” he added.

    Pointing out that the Dish TV operation is likely to be listed on the stock exchanges within a few weeks’ time, Chandra said, “Recently, because of this restructuring process they (Dish TV) amended their business model as well, which should be a very aggressive business model. So we haven’t been able to do the valuation of these different assets sitting in different entities like Zee Telefilms and ASCEL yet.”

    Dish TV’s operations are managed by Entertainment Era Network Ltd, while Zee Telefilms has a content supply deal with it. Once the regulatory and other permissions come through, the DTH business will be consolidated under “Dish TV Ltd or something (on those lines),” Chandra said.
    Asked about the equity base of the two new proposed companies, Chandra said that while that of Zee Telefilms Limited will remain unchanged at Rs 410 million, that of Zee News Limited will be approximately Rs 250 million.

    The equity base of the cable business under WWIL will be about Rs 250 million, says the man who has built up a business empire ranging from real estate to media to packaging after starting out exporting rice to the erstwhile USSR in the 1970s under the Essel brand name.

    Dwelling on the valuation of the cable business being carried out under Siti Cable, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Zee Tele, Chandra said, the value of Siti Cable ought to be in the region of $ 800- $ 900 million.

    Zee Telefilms, according to Chandra, bought back 50 per cent of Siti Cable from News Corporation in 1999-2000 at a valuation of Rs 15 billion.

    “Subsequently it (Siti Cable) was valued at Rs 2500 crore (Rs 25 billion). We are getting paid for about a million homes (now). So, if you take 1 million homes’ valuation at $ 500 per subscriber, that is $ 500 million plus if you take the rest of 5.8 million (subscribers) even at $ 50 valuation. So that makes this entity at about $ 800-900 million.on Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) equity basis, but the investment was of about Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) in this business,” Chandra explained.

    Asked about the prospects of Zee Sports, Chandra said as a corporate entity and business Zee Telefilms would be left with the sports channel after the restructuring is completed.

    Pointing out that Zee Sports is “still at a developmental stage,” Chandra said, “I will not call that a loss making entity. There are investments in it. Other than that, all the businesses are profitable in ZTL. The new start-ups of regional channels in Telugu, Kannada, etc are all a part of Zee News Ltd now.”

    The Zee Telefilms scrip closed on the Bombay Stock Exchange at Rs 242.50 after opening the day at Rs 239.55.

  • Zee to rejig; mulls Siti Cable hive-off

    Zee to rejig; mulls Siti Cable hive-off

    NEW DELHI: The Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms, which is planning a restructuring of its businesses, is toying hiving off its distribution activities as a separate company.

    On being specifically asked whether Siti Cable, the distribution arm of the company and the country biggest MSO, would be hived off as a separate company, a senior executive of Zee Telefilms admitted, “There is a possibility.”

    However, the executive was quick to point out that such an initiaive would not be done overnight. “We’ll have to take the shareholders’ nod for any such restructuring,” he added.
    Yesterday, Zee Telefilms Ltd informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that its board of directors would meet on 29 March 2006 to consider restructuring the company’s businesses.

    Few days back, Zee Telefilms finalised a deal for distribution of some family channels in Afghanistan where the flagship is now available on cable networks. Applications for landing rights in China too were made, but the chances are slim as China has stringent laws for non-Chinese broadcasting companies.

    According to information available with Indiantelevision.com, Zee Telefilms — India’s largest vertically integrated media company with its flagship Zee TV now inching back to the No. 2 position ahead of Sony — is toying a de-merger of its businesses.

    At the moment, all aspects of the broadcast business like content generation, marketing, distribution and syndication are carried out under the Zee Telefilms umbrella with different divisions.

    The DTH business of Subhash Chandra is carried out by another concern, ASC Enterprise, which has a content supply agreement with Zee Telefilms for country’s first private sector DTH service Dish TV.

    And, on Thursday Zee Telefilms announced at Ficci-Frames in Mumbai that the group’s digital media initiative will be carried out through a separate company called DMCL (Digital Media Convergence Ltd) that will facilitate the availability of digital content in India in association with Intel.

    In the past, Chandra has gone on record saying that the company would explore opportunities of unlocking shareholders’ value by hiving off Siti Cable as a separate company and possibly listing it also.

    Zee Telefilms subscription revenue (mainly garnered through distribution of TV channels; in India, Siti Cable is the vehicle) has been on the upswing with the company clocking Rs 1,751 million for the third quarter ended 31 Dec, 2005, signifying an increase of 7.8 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.

    Out of the total subscription revenue, domestic subscription amounted to Rs 716 million for the Q3 2006.

    Meanwhile, the senior executive of Zee Telefilms talking to Indiantelevision.com said that the company in 2006-07 hoped to do better than the annual average advertising industry growth of 9-11 per cent.

    Buoyed by good ad revenue (Q3 revenue: Rs 1,698 million, an increase of 12.3 per cent YoY), Zee Telefilms is set to increase ad rates across all channels by 30-40 per cent from the next financial year starting 1 April 2006.

    In the last one month, shares of Zee Tele have been heading northward rising to over Rs. 250 during the intra-day trading on 23 March from being quoted at Rs 168.15 on 22 February on the BSE.

    On Thursday, the Zee Tele scrip closed at Rs 242.70 after opening the day at Rs. 238.50.